By George Obulutsa
NAIROBI (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council should halttrials by a tribunal prosecuting the masterminds of Rwanda's1994 genocide because it is biased, defence lawyers said onWednesday.
Some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered bytroops and extremist Hutu militias during 100 days of carnage.The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) is tryinggovernment officials and military officers in power at thetime.
Defence lawyers say the court in northern Tanzania isignoring serious allegations against Rwanda's leader PaulKagame whose Tutsi rebels invaded and were credited withhalting the bloodshed.
"All convictions should be suspended, which means alltrials should be suspended, and there should be an independentinvestigation of the manipulation of the prosecutor's office,"said Peter Erlinder, head of the defence lawyers' association.
"The tribunal itself should cease operations during acomplete investigation by the U.N. Security Council."
Judges in France and Spain have called for Kagame and someassociates to be prosecuted for killings and other crimes.
Kigali cut ties with Paris in November 2006 after ananti-terrorist judge issued a summons for Kagame to stand trialfor the killing of his predecessor Juvenal Habyarimana, anevent that unleashed the genocide. Kagame denies anywrongdoing.
Earlier this month, Spain's High Court accused 40 membersof Kagame's rebels of organising the killing of hundreds ofthousands of civilians, including nine Spaniards, in the 1990s.
The court said in a statement judge Fernando Andreubelieved Kagame ordered killings and personally massacredcivilians, based on testimony by a protected witness, but hecould not prosecute him because he had immunity as a head ofstate.
"I believe the warrants from Spain have the sameshortcomings as the ones from France in that there may beimmunity for a sitting president," Erlinder told Reuters bytelephone from the ICTR in the Tanzanian town of Arusha.
"But I think that the Spanish warrants make it clear thatcomplicity extends to President Kagame, and of course there isno immunity at the ICTR."
Rwandan government spokesmen and ICTR officials were notimmediately available to comment.
(Writing by Daniel Wallis; editing by Robert Woodward)
